from London:
I came across two interesting items. Kuwaiti police found a truck of smuggled whiskey. The truck came from...Saudi Arabia. And sources in the Danish Defense Ministry admitted that Danish troops serving in Iraq have been kicking Iraqi women. It was explained that an advisor on Iraqi tribal affairs had told Danish military officials that Iraqi men would object if foreign troops touched Iraqi women, but that it would be fine to kick them and push them with feet. And the concierge of my hotel in London wanted to convince me that Lebanese are not Arabs, but..Pheonicians. Do you know how much that silly and kooky argument upset me? It really stems from racism by some Lebanese who have contempt for other Arabs. The man (from my homecity of Tyre, Lebanon no less) was so taken aback by my strong response that he resorted to that common intellectually cowardly method in debates: to claim that he was merely kidding with me. I just realized this: I am sounding grumpy in my postings since I left the US. But no worry: I can simply rename the site Grumpy Arab News Service (NEAL! NEAL!)